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Considering "taking the 5th" (Edition); questions for those more experienced.
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<blockquote data-quote="Tony Vargas" data-source="post: 6593652" data-attributes="member: 996"><p>You started with 2e? You didn't hate it? You were able to play 3.5 successfully? Yes, 5e should be just fine for you.</p><p></p><p>It depends on to what extent you want that 'low magic' - more importantly 'few casters' - aspect to be reflected in the party. If you would have not trouble with everyone in the party being a caster - their 'uncommonness,' perhaps, brought them together - then 5e, with it's default assumption of few magic items, tightly controlled by the DM, and most PC options being casters, should be just fine.</p><p></p><p> Yes. All classes have at least one sub-class (typically chosen at 3rd level), that innately uses magic in some way. There are 5 PC options, out of 38, that don't have any magical abilities at all: the Berserker, Champion, Battlemaster, Thief & Assassin.</p><p></p><p> Possible, yes. You could have a party of all Champion fighters - anything is possible. So is a party who all cast arcane spells. Like I said before, there are 38 sub-classes. 17 of them cast arcane spells. If you aren't careful to coach players against choosing those sub-classes - or don't just ban some of them outright - it seems likely you'll get a couple.</p><p></p><p> Yes. They have the most non-magical options, at two each.</p><p></p><p> No magic at all does bring it down to the 5 sub-classes I mentioned. Magic, but not actual casting, opens up the Totem Barbarian and Open Hand Monk - possibly the Shadow & Elemental Monks, as well, if you don't consider their use of spells (powered by Ki points) identical to casting.</p><p></p><p>It's not like 3.x or 2e is a lot better. In 2e, you had fighters & thieves not using magic - basically the same boat as 5e. In 3.x, you added the barbarian, and, later, Knight and Scout. Still only adds up to about 5 non-casters, though, obviously, you have a lot of build options.</p><p></p><p>What you do have in 5e is Backgrounds (very like 2e Kits). A different background can make two Champion fighters more distinct from eachother - if one's a woodsy Outlander and the other's a lofty Noble, for instance.</p><p></p><p> That's largely up to the DM. 5e is very like classic D&D in that the DM makes a lot of round-to-round rulings on the fly. It's not quite as codified as 2e C&T, let alone 3.x/Pathfinder. In general, you could rule that anything that formerly deprived a creature of DEX bonus to AC would grant attackers advantage (and give disadvantage on REF saves, for that matter). Except flanking, though that's also an optional rule in the DMG.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p> Adv/Dis is a binary state, so if you can come up with one source of advantage, you negate any amount of disadvantage.</p><p></p><p> Everything is. You could very easily replace it with a simple +2 modifier for Adv, -2 for Dis. You could keep it non-stacking/binary, or you could let those mods stack. It's not even mathematically /that/ different (Adv/Dis is a little complicated to analyze, but it works out to being equivalent to about a +/-5 if you were 50/50 to start, down to a +/-1 if you need a natural 20 to succeed or 1 to fail).</p><p></p><p> Low magic (or low wealth, BTW), yes. Rare casters <em>enforced against PCs</em>, no. In addition to the emphasis on magic in the PC options, healing requires a reasonable amount of magic - though that should be familiar from the other editions you've played, which is, perhaps, why you didn't ask about it. 5e actually has a few options that let you get by on non-magical healing: If you use the optional feats, there is a feat that lets a healer's kit restore hps instead of just stabilizing and another that gives a bonus to healing during a short rest. You have 'Hit Dice' (the same HD you use to generate you hps) that you can spend after a short (1hr) rest to heal yourself. And, by default, 'natural' healing restores all your hps overnight. So out-of-combat, you can get by without a caster able to toss healing word or CLW around. Effective in-combat healing still comes almost entirely from magic. The one exception I can think of is a single-use, rest-recharge fighter power, Second Wind, that heals 1d10+level damage as a bonus action.</p><p></p><p> Seems unlikely it'd do so. If the party was desperate and at disadvantage, they could still have one character do something to give the 'hail Mary' attempt advantage, and thus negate the disadvantage.</p><p></p><p></p><p>On balance, I'd encourage you to give 5e a chance.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Tony Vargas, post: 6593652, member: 996"] You started with 2e? You didn't hate it? You were able to play 3.5 successfully? Yes, 5e should be just fine for you. It depends on to what extent you want that 'low magic' - more importantly 'few casters' - aspect to be reflected in the party. If you would have not trouble with everyone in the party being a caster - their 'uncommonness,' perhaps, brought them together - then 5e, with it's default assumption of few magic items, tightly controlled by the DM, and most PC options being casters, should be just fine. Yes. All classes have at least one sub-class (typically chosen at 3rd level), that innately uses magic in some way. There are 5 PC options, out of 38, that don't have any magical abilities at all: the Berserker, Champion, Battlemaster, Thief & Assassin. Possible, yes. You could have a party of all Champion fighters - anything is possible. So is a party who all cast arcane spells. Like I said before, there are 38 sub-classes. 17 of them cast arcane spells. If you aren't careful to coach players against choosing those sub-classes - or don't just ban some of them outright - it seems likely you'll get a couple. Yes. They have the most non-magical options, at two each. No magic at all does bring it down to the 5 sub-classes I mentioned. Magic, but not actual casting, opens up the Totem Barbarian and Open Hand Monk - possibly the Shadow & Elemental Monks, as well, if you don't consider their use of spells (powered by Ki points) identical to casting. It's not like 3.x or 2e is a lot better. In 2e, you had fighters & thieves not using magic - basically the same boat as 5e. In 3.x, you added the barbarian, and, later, Knight and Scout. Still only adds up to about 5 non-casters, though, obviously, you have a lot of build options. What you do have in 5e is Backgrounds (very like 2e Kits). A different background can make two Champion fighters more distinct from eachother - if one's a woodsy Outlander and the other's a lofty Noble, for instance. That's largely up to the DM. 5e is very like classic D&D in that the DM makes a lot of round-to-round rulings on the fly. It's not quite as codified as 2e C&T, let alone 3.x/Pathfinder. In general, you could rule that anything that formerly deprived a creature of DEX bonus to AC would grant attackers advantage (and give disadvantage on REF saves, for that matter). Except flanking, though that's also an optional rule in the DMG. Adv/Dis is a binary state, so if you can come up with one source of advantage, you negate any amount of disadvantage. Everything is. You could very easily replace it with a simple +2 modifier for Adv, -2 for Dis. You could keep it non-stacking/binary, or you could let those mods stack. It's not even mathematically /that/ different (Adv/Dis is a little complicated to analyze, but it works out to being equivalent to about a +/-5 if you were 50/50 to start, down to a +/-1 if you need a natural 20 to succeed or 1 to fail). Low magic (or low wealth, BTW), yes. Rare casters [i]enforced against PCs[/i], no. In addition to the emphasis on magic in the PC options, healing requires a reasonable amount of magic - though that should be familiar from the other editions you've played, which is, perhaps, why you didn't ask about it. 5e actually has a few options that let you get by on non-magical healing: If you use the optional feats, there is a feat that lets a healer's kit restore hps instead of just stabilizing and another that gives a bonus to healing during a short rest. You have 'Hit Dice' (the same HD you use to generate you hps) that you can spend after a short (1hr) rest to heal yourself. And, by default, 'natural' healing restores all your hps overnight. So out-of-combat, you can get by without a caster able to toss healing word or CLW around. Effective in-combat healing still comes almost entirely from magic. The one exception I can think of is a single-use, rest-recharge fighter power, Second Wind, that heals 1d10+level damage as a bonus action. Seems unlikely it'd do so. If the party was desperate and at disadvantage, they could still have one character do something to give the 'hail Mary' attempt advantage, and thus negate the disadvantage. On balance, I'd encourage you to give 5e a chance. [/QUOTE]
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